Don't over-improve your personal residence if you plan to use as future rental...

We recommended 18 months ago that he increases the rent by about $200/month and we estimated that he needed to spend about $200,000 to improve the units to justify the rent increase. 

Hi @Bryson Scott, congratulations on successfully executing a tried and tested strategy of creating equity and improving cashflow by renovations and improved management.

@Hai Loc I feel like they try to make efforts to improve Hilltop, but it comes with mixed results.

Most investors I know in Northern Virginia self manage to improve their returns.Why are you locked in to townhouses?

I did determine there seems to be a need for Handymen however.I have a full time job now, but I really enjoy working on smaller home improvement projects. 

Those type of investors would almost certainly want a higher return than you would pay on a mortgage so it doesn’t make sense for you2) If you have stabilized the property and improved the NOI you could do a cash out refi to get most of your capital back but you would still maintain a cash flowing asset.

When you have a list of 3-5 good ones, be sure you also have a list of why yours is better than those.I would type out a list to hand to appraiser of all improvements you have done. 

The best part it was 7 roofs away from my primary residence, so I'm was improving my own neighborhood.

You mention that with minor improvements (within your $5500 rehab costs??)